The long-term objective of this proposal is to prepare a unique family of novel polymers that can be designed a priori to possess biomaterial properties not yet achievable by conventional means. This family is expected to produce a wide range of biodegradability, excellent biocompatibility, and a wide range of solubility (including water- solubility) and physical form (crystaine, amorphous, rubbery, or rigid). Most important and different from present synthetic biomaterials, they have the ability to interact with carbohydrate polymers (including nucleic acids) and proteins. The last property is intriguing because of the great importance of carbohydrate polymers and proteins to the molecular biology of all living systems. This approach will provide many superior biomaterials with better biocompatibility and with the intriguing possibility of directing these biomaterials to specific sites for therapeutic purposes. In view of the wide range of mechanical properties that should be attainable, these unique polymers should be useful for many biomedical applications, such as sutures, prostheses such as organs, joints, vascular and skin grafts, drug delivery, and slow release anesthetics where important needs still exist. In general, the proposed polymers will be characterized for mechanical properties, hydrolytic degradability in physiological saline, preliminary biocompatibility, molecular weight, solubility behavior, and crystallinity and glass transition temperature to guide selection for specific biomedical applications.